The Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA) Conference brought together plant-hirers, suppliers, operators, communications strategists and politicians to discuss why UK construction has under-performed, and to suggest ideas to get Britain back building.
Under the theme of ‘Unlocking the Nation’s Growth Plans’, the event was held at the historic One Great George Street building in Westminster, Central London, the headquarters of the Institution of Civil Engineers. It attracted almost 150 delegates and comprised four main conference sessions, hosted by construction industry journalist Peter Haddock, founder of the Content With Media business. Other speakers bookended proceedings.
Opening the Conference, Steve Mulholland, CPA Chief Executive Officer, said the Association had made significant strides in campaigning for change amongst regulators and legislators in areas such as skills, training and rising fuel costs. CPA had commissioned Oxford Economics to produce specialist reports, including ‘The Economic Impact of the UK Construction Plant-hire Sector’, and ‘Half-Built Britain: Unlocking the Nation’s Infrastructure Growth Plants’. A third report on Net Zero will be published shortly.
Steve said that for every £1 spent on construction, £3.30 was generated in the wider economy. He was pleased that CPA now had frequent dialogue with MPs - two of whom spoke at the event.
The first, Richard Fuller, MP for North Bedfordshire and Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, gave the keynote political address. He said that, as the Government is the single largest funder of construction projects in the UK, it was vital for the public sector to maintain close links with the construction industry. However, he felt that the current government put obstacles in the way of progress: project guidelines and tender requirements often reflected political objectives rather than practical delivery.
The first Conference session was led by Graham Robinson, Global Infrastructure and Construction Lead at Oxford Economics and entitled ‘Half-Built Britain: Unlocking the Nation’s Infrastructure Growth Plans’ - after the consultancy’s second report for the CPA. He said the consultancy forecast little or no growth in the UK this year, with inflation possibly rising and interest rates not being reduced quickly. The report showed that governments have underinvested in infrastructure for several decades.
Government circles needed to appreciate the industry’s challenges. Plant-hirers, for example, reinvested 26p of every £1 made back into machinery, and this capital-intensiveness had to be realised by regulation-setters. PPP (public-private partnership) funding arrangements could also be explored to deliver efficiencies.
Session participant Chris Cassley, Policy Director at the CPA, had a Government wish-list, the first being for greater consistency: we need to create the role of Infrastructure Secretary in Cabinet. By his reckoning, Construction Ministers had changed every 10 months on average over the past 15 years. Second, fiscal policy should prioritise growth and business investment, and thirdly national planning policy frameworks needed to be decided. Finally, he wanted more focus on training a skilled workforce.
Cameron Brown, Director at the Charlesbye public affairs and communications consultancy, echoed the call for greater public sector consistency. Business taxation had to be combined with growth incentives, and employment requirements both current and future had to be addressed.
Peter Gibbs, Chief Executive Officer with Ainscough Crane Hire, agreed that far greater government focus and clarity were needed. He felt there was no clear pipeline of work and infrastructure investment.
Chris Matthew, Chief Commercial Officer with Plantforce Rentals, said pipelines required clear timetables for progress. Often, people focused on the ‘stories’ of a project and its aims, rather than the realistic necessities of delivery.
Mark Hoad, Sales and Marketing Director with Sunbelt Rentals UK & Ireland, agreed that there had been a tendency towards short-term government thinking, especially regarding large infrastructure ‘mega-projects’. Greater clarity and a longer-term outlook would facilitate investment decisions.
The second Conference session addressed future employment requirements, entitled ‘Building Skills for the Workforce’. Molly Gill, a Plant Operator with Flannery Plant Hire, recounted her career path from a Nursery Assistant with little chance of progression, to attending a Government-funded Bootcamp for young people run by Flannery where she discovered her passion for plant. Molly, who was recognised as the Young Plant Operator of the Year in CPA’s Stars of the Future Awards in 2025, said it was important that schoolchildren were told about the opportunities offered by modern construction techniques and technology, so they could emulate her enthusiasm.
Aaron Davis, Safety and Skills Director with Flannery Plant Hire, described their success with the Bootcamp initiatives. In three years, more than 2,500 people have participated, but 85% have subsequently not joined Flannery, choosing to go instead to another related business, perhaps in a specific sector or in a different area. Although the overall outcome had been to attract industry entrants, this again showed the need for long-term government support.
Indeed, Rob Lynch, Joint Managing Director with L Lynch Plant Hire & Haulage, said that given the scope and scale of opportunities, individual firms simply could not cover all recruitment and career possibilities. And some funding opportunities came with certain parameters, such as only being for those out of work for a certain length of time.
Paul Skitt, Managing Director of Business and Skills Support, suggested that a Government-backed National Infrastructure Fund, led by employers, could help identify training requirements and deliver them with consistency. And stereotypical construction images of bricklayers and plumbers needed to be replaced with more modern representations.
Conference Session Three had just one participant: Lee Cain, founder of the Charlesbye strategic advisory firm, speaking on ‘Effective Communications in a Crowded Space’. He was well-qualified, having been Downing Street Director of Communications under Prime Minister Boris Johnson during the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic. He said people were surrounded by more messaging noise that ever before, and in order to cope, they would filter out what they considered irrelevant.
There were three key messaging elements, he said, the first being Prioritisation. Mixed or multiple messages would be confusing, so what was your over-riding one? This was reinforced by the second element, Simplification, whereby the message must be clear, concise and not complex. Everyone will remember the government’s focus during the Covid pandemic on taking individual responsibility. The slogan ‘Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives’ reflected the key components in a direct way. Thirdly, it was important to appreciate the power of Repetition. Deviating from a straightforward message would cause confusion.
The final session focused on ‘Decarbonisation and Preparing for the Future’, led by Luis Bassett, CPA’s Decarbonisation and Sustainability Manager. He said climate change was a very real threat: an average global temperature increase of 1.5C took 40 generations in the past, but at present rates the world will have achieved this in just three. This is causing flooding, reducing crop growth and damaging infrastructure. However, he advocated a pragmatic approach, suggesting that Net Zero need not be achieved immediately but rather in measured stages with gradual reductions towards the desired target.
Chris Sleight, Managing Director of the Off-Highway Research consultancy, painted a sobering picture. Battery-electric machines accounted for only 0.4% of UK construction plant sales in 2025; but in China the figure was 15%, in Norway 9% and in the Netherlands 8%. These other countries, he said, had subsidies in place to help equipment owners transition.
Similarly, Steve Moody, Managing Director of SKM Asset Finance and Consultant at Construction Plant Finance, contrasted availability of finance for electric vehicles against that for construction plant. UK electric car sales had risen to a point where assessors now had good insight into long-term vehicle and battery life, enabling them to offer finance packages, but this was not yet widely the case for larger plant. However, a Green Growth Guarantee Scheme is being piloted, 70% Government-backed and administered by the British Business Bank to provide targeted funding.
Charles Bénard, Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder of the Hiboo tech business, said the company’s digitisation systems allowed equipment operators to benefit from telematics data gathered from various machine types, from different manufacturers.
Joe Gallagher, a Senior Consultant and Partnerships Director with ESG PRO, said that ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) considerations were increasingly important in the contract tendering process, with clients specifying KPIs in contracts, as well as encouraging local sourcing of products and services.
The Conference was closed by the second MP speaker of the day, Jerome Mayhew, MP for Broadland and Fakenham, and Shadow Minister of State for Transport. He posed a number of rhetorical questions to sum up the challenges, including: How can we respond meaningfully to where the country’s infrastructure needs to be? Why do projects take so long and cost so much (HS2 being a case in point)? And what exactly do we need to fix? He said that he has been tasked with seeking answers this summer, suggesting that instead of ‘steady as she goes’ we needed ‘scruff of the neck’ politics.
Suppliers of equipment and services supported an exhibition running alongside the Conference. These included Headline Sponsor Spartan Solutions, Associate Sponsor JCB Insurance and Media Partner Plant Planet, along with ACOP Group, CESAR Scheme Powered by Datatag, Compass Business Finance, CPCS/NOCN Group, Instagrid, Myerscough College, ParkSafe Group, Point of Rental Software/Record360, PlantWorx 2027, Prolectric and VUE Group.